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 Still has a number of bugs
 User Interface needs work
 GIF files not supported
 YouTube, Flickr and iTunes features require Windows

Over the last couple of years, I've tried out a number of networked multimedia
devices. These gadgets are designed to act as a bridge between your
entertainment center and your digital photos, movies, and music stored on a
computer. Typically the way they work is that specialized software on a PC feeds
content across your network to the device for playback on your TV or stereo. After trying out a number of different devices, I settled down with NETGEAR's
High-definition capable EVA700 for general-purpose use, mostly due to its
support for wide variety of video formats.

But now NETGEAR has come out with a
successor to the EVA700. The EVA8000 builds on the functionality of the EVA700
by supporting TV tuner cards in an associated PC and adding an 1080p-capable HDMI
port, playback of content from some popular Internet sites such as
YouTube and support for even more video formats. And to top it off,
NETGEAR had added the capability to play DRM-restricted music purchased from the
iTunes store. In this review, I'll put the box through its paces, checking out
its feature set to see just how well all this new functionality works.

Setup

Figure 1, from the manual, shows the back of the box. You can see both analog
and digital connectors, an Ethernet port, and antennas for wireless use.

Figure 1: EVA8000 Back Panel

Also note the presence of a USB 2.0 port on the rear. One of my complaints about
the EVA700 was that the only USB port was on the front panelmeaning that if you
wanted to permanently attach a drive full of media instead of streaming it from
a PC, you'd have to put up with a cable dangling off the front. The EVA8000
solves this issue by supporting two ports: one on the front panel and one on the
rear. Disks from a number of common Windows, Macintosh and Linux
filesystems can be used. The reference to Linux filesystems indicates the box is
running Linux internally, which I discuss later.

Since I have an Ethernet drop in my entertainment center, I first hooked up
Ethernet and composite HD cables, and then powered up the unit. Setup was
straightforward, switching between the user interface on the TV and installing
software on my PC. When the installation was complete, one curiosity was the
presence of a new virtual "sound card" installed on my Windows system.

Although
Macintosh and Linux systems are supported, some features such as YouTube
playback and iTunes DRM support are Windows-only because they require the Windows application that comes with the 8000 to be running.

As I went through the device
setup, I recognized one main difference between the EVA700 and the EVA8000.
Whereas the EVA700 relied on a UPnP Audio Video server for getting content, the
EVA8000 was using network shared drives (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Shared drive setup

The EVA8000 supports UPnP AV servers, but according to the documentation, using
network disks is the preferred means of serving content. One step in getting the
device configured is telling it to scan and index the chosen network drives for
content. In my case, this took over 30 minutes, since I have a fairly large
collection of photos, music, and videos. In my experience with other devices, a
UPnP server does this initial media scan in less than a minute. Be careful when
selecting network shares and UPnP servers. If the coverage of your shares and
servers overlap, you'll get multiple menu entries for the same files.

Once the initial scan is done, you can set up a schedule for the device to look
for new media. Unfortunately this "New Media Scan" once occurred during the
time I was watching a movie. When this happened, the indexing screen
automatically came up and my movie shrunk down to an inset window until the scan
was completed.

Figure 3 shows the main menu once the device has been set up. Note the
weather display that gets customized based on your zip code.